Crackdown on alcohol continues in El Cajon

EL CAJON  Dozens of mom-and-pop liquor store owners from around the city showed up in force at El Cajon’s City Council meeting Tuesday to hear the council weigh in on a problem the city has been trying for years to fix: The sale of alcohol to chronic inebriates and those under 21.

The council also expressed concern over the sales of smaller — and cheaper — bottles of single-serve hard liquor and of the sales of “fortified” beer and wine.

Because council members concluded that a community-based task force that started in 2011 has not done enough to help curtail those issues, they have been seeking other ways to break the cycle.

The council dug deeper Tuesday by unanimously agreeing to craft what is known as a deemed-approved ordinance.

Such an ordinance, as it relates to alcohol sales, is used in nearly two dozen cities in California. It would make existing alcohol outlets accountable to a set of performance standards.

A draft will be written over the next few weeks by city staff, then presented to the El Cajon Planning Commission, where a public hearing will be held within the next three months, according to City Attorney Morgan Foley. The issue will then go back to the City Council sometime in the summer when another public hearing will be held.

“All we’re asking them to do is not sell to the drunks and not sell to the kids, and I am going to do whatever it takes to stop them from doing it,” City Councilman Gary Kendrick said of the nearly 80 markets around the city. “If it takes coming down hard on them with an ordinance, that’s what we’ll do. If they do it voluntarily, that’s great... but it didn’t work with tobacco.”

The 10-member task force that was formed in 2011 included members of the Neighborhood Market Association, Communities Against Substance Abuse, business owners, private citizens, Kendrick and former Councilwoman Jillian Hanson-Cox. The group fell by the wayside after Hanson-Cox resigned from the council nearly a year ago. She is serving a prison sentence in Arizona after pleading guilty to mail fraud and filing false tax returns.

CASA Executive Director Dana Stevens gave an audiovisual presentation that pointed out some of the liquor stores that she said were contributing to issues associated with alcohol sales such as petty theft, panhandling, public urination and “the stench of human waste,” she noted.

“For 26 years we’ve been trying to prevent problems associated with alcohol and drugs,” Stevens said, also noting that El Cajon has been placed in a moratorium category by the state’s Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control because the city has an overabundance of off-site sale liquor licenses.

Mark Paul Arabo, president and CEO of the Neighborhood Market Association, which represents the great majority of the liquor stores in El Cajon, said the group would take a hard-line stance and do what it takes to bring stores in line with that vision.

“The NMA will be meeting with the El Cajon Police Department, city staff and city attorney to hopefully come up with objective, measured goals we all can focus on,” Arabo said. “I hope we all could work together with the city of El Cajon for a win-win for all. In addition, we will ... help them with community feedback. Our main objective will be public safety, bettering communities we do business in, and creating a solid partnership with the NMA and the city.”